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Tyrannosaurus rex
Tyrannosaurus rex, or T-Rex for short, was a popular movie monster before the making of Jurassic Park and its routes in film trace back to the 1920's Lost World. Tyrannosaurus rex was a large theropod dinosaur which lived in North America during the late Cretaceous period, 68 to 66 million years ago. It was the top predator of its time, but many paleontologists believed it was just a scavenger. Despite its large size, it was not very fast and had very short arms with two fingers. It was one of the last dinosaurs to live on Earth. It had powerful jaws and teeth that could crush a bone. All its features made it one of the most powerful and well adapted hunters of its time. Etymology The name Tyrannosaurus rex means "tyrant lizard king" and the creature is commonly referred to as the "king of the dinosaurs" or "T. rex" for short. "Tyranno" comes from the Ancient Greek term tyrannos, meaning "tyrant" while "saurus" is a combination of Greek and Latin root of the word sauros, which means "lizard", and "rex" is Latin for "king". In 1892, when the first Tyrannosaurus fossil was excavated, Edward Drinker Cope named it Manospondylus gigas, meaning "giant pouros vertebra". Biology Size Sue (FMNH PR 2081), one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus specimen (at over 90% recovered by bulk), located at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, stood 13 feet (4 meters) tall at the hips (16 feet (4.9 meters) at the head), measured 40 feet (12.3 meters) long and weighed between 8.4 to 14 metric tons (9.3 to 15.4 short tons) when she was alive. In 2019, the specimen Scotty (RSM P2523.8), located at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, was estimated to be about 43.3 feet (13.2 meters) long, 13.4 feet (4.1 meters) tall at the hips (17 feet (5.2 meters) at the head), and weighing 8.8 metric tons (9.7 short tons). Teeth The Tyrannosaurus had over 60 teeth that measured 20 centimeters in length. Although not the largest meat-eating dinosaur, the T. rex had the strongest bite force of any land animal, a bite force of 6.4 tons, so it could easily tear off 60 kilograms of flesh. Skeleton The skull of the Tyrannosaurus measured up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) in length. Skin Most recent evidence shows that Tyrannosaurus rex was likely covered in bumpy scales similar to those of crocodilians, but with some possible feathering. This hypothesis is supported by the discovery of other tyrannosaurids in China, such as Dilong paradoxus (discovered in 2004) and Yutyrannus huali (discovered in 2012). Paleobiology Arms When paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn named the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex in 1905, he speculated that its arms functioned as a grasping form in copulation. Throughout the media, everyone loves to make jokes on how small the forelimbs of the Tyrannosaurus were. The arms of the dinosaur were over 3 feet (1 meter) in length and probably could lift over 400 pounds. Fossil locations *Colorado *Montana *New Mexico *South Dakota *Texas *Utah *Wyoming Brain and binocular vision The T. rex had great binocular vision. Also, it was actually an intelligent dinosaur in reality with a large and developed brain, despite a lot of people believing it to be stupid. The brain was up to six times larger than any other dinosaur and is suggested that rex hunted in packs. Diet Tyrannosaurus rex was a carnivore and ate large and sometimes armored dinosaurs, such as Triceratops. A minority group of paleontologists believed that T. rex was a pure scavenger who rarely if ever actively hunted prey. The hypothesis of paleontologist Jack Horner was that it was a exclusively a scavenger rather than a predator. Stance Ex-president of the American Museum of Natural History, Henry Osborn, was convinced that the Tyrannosaurus rex stood in a upright posture in 1915, much like many bipedal dinosaurs. The Tyrannosaurus was initially portrayed with the body at 45 degrees or less from the vertical area and the tail dragging along the ground, much like a kangaroo. However, by 1970, 55 years after this belief, scientists found out that this stance was wrong and could not have been maintained by a living animal, as it would have caused in the dislocation or weakening of several joints, including the hips and the articulation between the spinal column and the head. The first complete Tyranosaurus rex skeleton stood in an upright posture for 77 years, until in 1992, when it was dismantled. Despite this, the inaccurate AMNH mount has influenced similar depictions in many films and paintings, such as The Lost World (1925) and Rudolph Zallinger's famous mural The Age of Reptiles in Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History, until the 1990s, when movies like Jurassic Park (1993) introduced a more accurate stance to the general public. Thermoregulation Recent discoveries show that Tyrannosaurus had built-in air-conditioner, or dorsotemporal fenestra in its skull, which may have aided thermoregulation, similar to modern alligators, which are ectothermic (cold-blooded) and Tyrannosaurus, like most dinosaurs, were long believed to have this type of metabolism. T-Rex in Films Tyrannosaurus rex has played a major role in many films, starting in 1918 with The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, written and directed by stop motion special effects pioneer Willis O'Brien. The Ghost of Slumber Mountain is also, and most likely, the first film showing Tyrannosaurus facing Triceratops. The king of the tyrant lizards came back in 1925 with the classic adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Lost World. Tyrannosaurus fossils weren't so famous at the time of the publication of the novel (1912), and the only main dinosaur villain on the book was Allosaurus, with no appearance of Tyrannosaurus, but this 1925 film featured Tyrannosaurus anyway, for a more dramatic and spectacular effect. The king of the dinosaurs reappeared in the 1933 film King Kong, one of its most famous film appearances. In the film, the T. rex lived on Skull Island, located in the Indian Ocean, where it tried to eat Ann Darrow, but the titular giant gorilla arrived to save her. Kong managed to break its jaw and snap it, killing the tyrant lizard. Despite it being referred to as a Tyrannosaurus, director Merian C. Cooper identified it as an Allosaurus (despite the dinosaur being simply referred to as a "meat eater" in the film's script). Gallery Jprex.jpg|''T. rex'' in Jurassic Park III Carnosaur 3.jpg|''T. rex'' in Carnosaur Tyrannosaurus Sue skeletal reconstruction.jpg Category:T-Rex Category:Dinosaurs Category:Reptilian monsters Category:Prehistoric Monsters Category:Giant monsters Category:Sea monsters Category:The Largest Movie Monsters Ever Category:Deceased Category:Movie monsters Category:Live-Action monsters Category:Horror monsters Category:All monsters Category:Villains Category:Antagonists Category:Hero monsters